Are You Overweight?

”Are you overweight?” This sounds like a simple question to answer, but not really. Cultivate your intellect to begin your weight loss. Begin weight loss with knowledge acquisition. Knowledge is empowering.

First and foremost, you need knowledge about yourself: who you are, and what you want.

Are you overweight? This is a simple and straightforward yes-or-no question.

There are three possible scenarios to the question.

Scenario one

Your body shape and the figure on your bathroom scale, or even your doctor’s warning may not indicate whether or not you have a weight problem, because you see no evil and hear no evil. You simply ignore the facts confronting you. In other words, you are in a state of denial. Not confronting the truth is an easy way out of any difficult and undesirable situation in life. If you see no problem, then there is no problem. In that case, you are not overweight.

Scenario two

You are fully aware of your weight problem. But you choose not to do anything about it. Knowing is one thing, while taking action is another. You may have a live-and-let-live attitude. You may have resigned to the fact that there is not much you can do about your problem any way, so why bother yourself with solving it. Yes, there is a problem, but so what? You live to eat, not eat to live. To you, tomorrow is another day, and possibly a better day at that. So, you simply don't give a damn!

Scenario three

You are hurt badly enough that you want to make a meaningful change. You are short of breath when you climb the stairs, you wobble, instead of walking, and you look grossly out of shape. This is the best scenario if you really take some action.

The Complexity of Weight Loss

So, it is not that easy to answer that simple question: Are you overweight?

The following questions may shed some light on how to answer that simple question:

Do you have high blood pressure?

Are your blood cholesterol levels normal?

Do you experience regular physical pain, or frequent headaches?

Do you have difficulty going to sleep?

Do you have insatiable cravings for certain unhealthy foods?

Do you have anxiety or mental depression?

Is everyday life stressful to you?

Do you have any degenerative disease or chronic illness?

Because the answer to that simple question “Are you overweight?” is far from simple, you can now see why weight loss is such a complex problem—so complex that most of us may choose to ignore it totally, instead of dealing with it.

After all, we are human, and it is human nature to avoid any complex problem, and to procrastinate in doing what we ought to do.

But why is that?

It is because we have been exposed so much to the media and bombarded by the weight-loss industry that many of us become confounded and overwhelmed. Many of us simply don’ know what to do, or what to believe. There are many truths, but also many myths, as well as half-truths.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau